International Health Program

Background: This study aims to assess preferences and values for priority setting in healthcare in Chile through an original and innovative survey method. Based on the answers from a previous survey that look into the barriers the Chilean population face, this study considers the preferences of the communities overcoming those barriers. As a result six programs were identified: (1) new infrastructure, (2) better healthcare coverage, (3) increasing physicians/specialists, (4) new informatics systems, (5) new awareness healthcare programs, and (6) improving availability of drugs. Methods: We applied an innovative survey method for sample subjects to prioritize these programs by their opinion and by allocating resources. The survey also asked people´s preferences for a distributive justice principle for healthcare to guide priority setting of services in Chile. The survey was conducted with a sample of 1,142 individuals. Results: More than half of the interviewees (56.4%) indicated a s...

Health disparities along the gender, race and class are particularly important to monitor and study given the predicted differential distribution of health along these social identities. Intersectionality is a theoretical framework that allows public health and health disparities researchers to account for the simultaneous, mutually constitutive, reinforcing and multidimensional effects of gender, class, and race with the aim to better understand health disparities. Disparities along gender, race and class have been noted in self-reported health status (SRHS) which has been shown to be a strong predictive factor of mortality, morbidity and mental health independent of other physiologic, behavioral and psychosocial risk factors. To assess SRHS disparities through an intersectional lens, a quantitative application of the framework was applied to a secondary data analysis of the 2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component. Two models were constructed to assess the ...

Essential healthcare is a civil right. Payments toward healthcare is a moral compulsion, and no less strong than legal compulsion like income tax. Healthcare payments can redistribute disposable income. Redistribution may be vertical (from rich to poor or opposite) and horizontal (from men to women or from households without children to households with children). Health planners are interested in degrees to which redistribution occurs. In this paper, we aim to analyze how well different forms of healthcare payments in Bangladesh redistribute disposable income. Our data comes from Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2010. Using the methods developed by Aronson et al. (1994), we assessed average rate effect, progressivity, horizontal equity and re-ranking. The results suggest that Bangladesh health systems finance has a pro-rich redistribution of disposable income. Post-payment disposable income decreases for the poor and increases for the rich. As a result, the poor a...

We examined the relationship between meditation experience, psychological mindfulness, quiet ego characteristics, and self-reported physical health in a diverse sample of adults with a range of Buddhist experience (N = 117) gathered from a web-based survey administered to Buddhist practitioners around the world between August 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008. Practicing meditation on a regular basis and greater experience with
Buddhism was related to higher psychological mindfulness scores. Psychological mindfulness was correlated with a latent variable called ‘‘quiet ego characteristics’’ that reflected measures based on Bauer and Wayment’s (Transcending self-interest: psychological explorations of the quiet ego. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 7–19, 2008) conceptual and multidimensional definition of a ‘‘quiet ego’’: wisdom, altruism, sense of interdependence with all living things, need for structure (reversed), anger/verbal aggression (reversed), and negative affectivity (reversed). In turn, quiet ego
characteristics were positively related to self-reported health. Our findings provide continuing support for the key role psychological mindfulness may play in psychological and physical well-being.

Summary
The profound changes to the world economy since the late twentieth century have been characterised by a growth in the number and size of transnational corporations. In this context, there is now increasing evidence of unprecedented reversals in health indicators among populations around the world. Research in this area has focused on documenting the global health impacts arising from the economic activity of corporations. The challenge for public health researchers is to understand the ways in which corporations are regulated by, and participate in global health governance and implications for health and well-being across the globe. This book is an introductory guide to conducting research on the role of corporations in global health governance from a range of disciplinary perspectives and gives an overview of different approaches, methodologies and data sources. Along with the related volume Case Studies in Corporations and Global Health Governance, the book is an essential guide for scholars and students alike.
Table of Contents
Preface / List of acronyms / List of illustrations / 1. Corporations and global health governance: A research agenda, Lee, Hawkins and Wiist / PART I: DISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO ANALYSING CORPORATIONS / 2. Political science, Hawkins / 3. International political economy, Eckhardt / 4. Social Policy, Holden and Farnsworth / 5. Historical analysis, MacKenzie / 6. Criminology, Michalowski / 7. Anthropology, Parker and Kenworthy / 8. Public health, Wipfli and Mack / 9. Development Studies, Carnegie / 10. Media analysis and corporate communication, Kline / PART II: METHODS AND DATA SOURCES FOR ANALYSING CORPORATIONS / 11. Interviewing key informants from the corporate sector, Hawkins and Cassidy / 12. The role of ethnography in analysing corporations, Carrillo Botero / 13. Oral history, Stevenson / 14. Participation of corporations in international organizations, Derman / 15. Studying the influence of corporations on democratic processes, Wiist / 16. Analysing corporate documents, MacKenzie and Holden / 17. Social media research methods, Freeman / 18. Making use of business and financial data, Lee / 19. Using freedom of information requests, Freeman / 20. Tracking down and using grey literature, Taylor and Sullivan / 21. Legal and ethical considerations, Lee, Hawkins & Silva /22. Developing a data management plan, Carrillo Botero and Fang /About the Contributors / Index

Preventing War and Promoting Peace: A Guide for Health Professionals is
an interdisciplinary study of how pervasive militarism creates
a propensity for war through the influence of academia, economic
policy, the defense industry, and the news media. Comprising contributions
by academics and practitioners from the fields of public
health, medicine, nursing, law, sociology, psychology, political science,
and peace and conflict studies, as well as representatives from organizations
active in war prevention, the book emphasizes the underlying
preventable causes of war, particularly militarism, and focuses on the
methods health professionals can use to prevent war. Preventing War
and Promoting Peace provides hard-hitting facts about the devastating
health effects of war and a broad perspective on war and health,
presenting a new paradigm for the proactive engagement of health
professions in the prevention of war and the promotion of peace.

The Introduction chapter frames the causes of war the combined influence of US imperialism, militarism and corporate power, and cites historical and contemporary examples.
In:
Preventing War and Promoting Peace: A Guide for Health Professionals is an interdisciplinary study of how pervasive militarism creates a propensity for war through the influence of academia, economic policy, the defense industry, and the news media. Comprising  contributions by academics and practitioners from the fields of public health, medicine, nursing, law, sociology, psychology, political science, and peace and conflict studies, as well as representatives from organizations
active in war prevention, the book emphasizes the underlying preventable causes of war, particularly militarism, and focuses on the methods health professionals can use to prevent war. Preventing War
and Promoting Peace provides hard-hitting facts about the devastating health effects of war and a broad perspective on war and health, presenting a new paradigm for the proactive engagement of health
professions in the prevention of war and the promotion of peace.

The following is a 10-15 minute invited presentation of a condensed, updated framework based on my proposed systems model of how corporations exert influence on public health which I presented several years prior as a peer-reviewed presentation on a panel at a national public health convention. At the time the model appeared to be the only such comprehensive model proposed by anyone in public health. Although not proposing a conspiracy, the interactions and coordinated planning in many institutions suggest a commonality of corporate tactics globally. In certain aspects the framework describes conditions in the U.S. but applicable to other nations. Although some situations and data in the presentation have since changed, the framework is overall, still an accurate description. In the years since this presentation, frameworks about corporate methods of influence have become more common, as the concepts I presented and in my additional presentations and publications (see next slide) became more widely adopted in public health. Other public health professionals have since proposed similar frameworks largely based on research about corporate practices in specific industries (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, food and beverage, firearms). Currently the term "commercial determinants of health" has been popularly adopted to describe the ways corporations influence health. For a variety of reason I did not (but still may) submit the model for peer-review publication. I offer this educational presentation here with the hope that it will stimulate further thinking, research and advocacy. If you find the model, concepts and ideas useful, please cite this presentation as shown on the title slide (#4).

The “Part of the Solution” article describes how the food industry has evolved its strategies to respond to critics and government regulation by co-option and appeasement to create a less hostile environment. Rather than focusing research on single industries it would be more efficient and productive to focus on corporate political activities (CPA) that directly influence democratic institutions and processes having authority over laws, policy, rules and regulations that govern industry. The most influential and direct CPA are election campaign donations, lobbying, and the reverse revolving door. In the U.S. those CPA flow from rights of corporations that underlie all industry strategies. The U.S. history of how corporations obtained their rights is described, and research about the affirmative effects of those three CPA is summarized. Health research is needed about those CPA and their effects on health law, policy and regulation in the U.S. and other nations.